1.
Daventry
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Daventry /ˈdævəntri/ is a market town in Northamptonshire, England, with a population of 25,026. The town is also the centre of the larger Daventry district. The town is 76.4 miles north-northwest of London via the M1 motorway,13.9 miles west of Northampton,10.2 miles southeast of Rugby. and 15.8 miles north-north east of Banbury, the town is twinned with Westerburg, Germany. The town sits at around 440–520 ft above sea level and it is surrounded to the south and east by hills topping out at 738 ft. To the north and west the land is lower than the town. Daventry sits on the watershed of the River Leam which flows to the west of England, to the north west is Drayton Reservoir and to the north east is the Daventry Reservoir and country park. Watford Gap is about 4 miles to the north east of the town, through this gap pass the A5, the Grand Union Canal, West Coast Main Line railway, the Northampton Loop Line and most recently the M1 motorway. Daventry is near the M1 motorway with access to two junctions,18 to the northeast and 16 to the southeast of the town, the A425 acts as a ring road to the east of the town centre. The town is served by junction 18 of the M1. From the south west there is access from junction 11 of the M40 along the A361, local and regional bus services are provided by Stagecoach from their bases in Northampton, Rugby, Banbury and until December 2016, Leamington Spa. A daily coach service connects the town with destinations between Liverpool and Clacton, inter-city services can be accessed from Rugby railway station and Banbury railway station. The nearest major airport is Birmingham Airport. The town comprises a market centre surrounded by much modern housing. On the edge of the centre is the popular Daventry Country Park and reservoir. There are 74 buildings or groups of buildings in the centre of Daventry that are on the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest led by the Church of Holy Cross at grade I. Grade II* buildings include the Saracen’s Head, the Moot Hall, the Wheatsheaf,27,29,36,57,59 High Street and 2,20, and 22 Sheaf Street. A street market is held every Tuesday and Friday in High Street, on the first Saturday of each month a farmers market is held in High Street. The town once had a station on the former LNWR branch-line from Weedon to Leamington Spa
2.
Nagpur
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Nagpur is the winter capital and the third largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune and largest city of central India. It has one of the highest literacy rate of 91. 92% among all the urban agglomerations in India, Nagpur is the seat of the annual winter session of the Maharashtra state assembly, Vidhan Sabha. It is a commercial and political centre of the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. In addition, the city derives political importance from being the headquarters for the Hindu nationalist organisation RSS, Nagpur also known for Deekshabhoomi, the largest hollow stupa among all Buddhist stupas in the world. Here Dr. B. R. Ambedkar along with nearly 500,000 followers converted to Buddhism and this was one of the first mass religious conversions in the history of India. According to a survey by ABP News-Ipsos, Nagpur has been identified as the best city in India by topping the liveability, greenery, public transport, and health care indices. The city has been adjudged as the 20th cleanest city in India and it is famous for the Nagpur orange and is known as the Orange City for being a major trade centre of oranges cultivated in the region. The city was founded in 1703 by the Gonds King Bakht Buland Shah of Deogarh, the British East India Company took over Nagpur in the 19th century and made it the capital of the Central Provinces and Berar. After the first reorganisation of states, the city lost its status as the capital, following the informal Nagpur Pact between political leaders, it was made the second capital of Maharashtra. Also see, Nagpur state One of the names of Nagpur was Fanindrapura. It derives its origin from the Fana or hood of a cobra, in fact, Nagpurs first newspaper was named Fanindramani, which means a jewel that is believed to be suspended over a cobras hood. It is this jewel that lights up the darkness, hence the name of the newspaper, the river Nag flows through the city. B. R. Ambedkar claimed that both the city and the river are named after Nag people, the word pur means city in many Indian languages. During British rule, the name of the city was spelt, in the 18th century, this city was created by leader of Gond Dynasty named Bakht Buland Shah in the first half of the century. Human existence around present-day Nagpur can be traced back 3000 years to the 8th century BCE, mehir burial sites at Drugdhamna indicate that the megalithic culture existed around Nagpur and is still followed. The first reference to the name Nagpur is found in a 10th-century copper-plate inscription discovered at Devali in the neighbouring Wardha district. The inscription is a record of grant of a village situated in the visaya of Nagpura-Nandivardhana during the time of the Rastrakuta king Krsna III in the Saka year 862, towards the end of the 3rd century, King Vindhyasakti is known to have ruled the Nagpur region. In the 4th century, the Vakataka Dynasty ruled over the Nagpur region, the Vakataka king Prithvisena I moved his capital to Nagardhan,28 kilometres from Nagpur
3.
Bengal Native Infantry
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The first Native battalion was raised by the East India Company in 1757 and by the start of 1857 there were 74 regiments of Bengal Native Infantry in the Bengal Army. The traditional formation of British and Presidency armies regiments was by a hierarchy in which the 1st Regiment was the oldest, in 1764 however, the Bengal Native Infantry regiments were renumbered in the order of the seniority of their captain. In 1885, the word Native was dropped from the titles of all units in the Bengal Army. Bengal Native Infantry regiments typically consisted of 1,000 privates,120 non-commissioned officers,20 native commissioned officers,2 British sergeants and 26 British commissioned officers. Regiments were commanded by a lieutenant-colonel and were divided into 10 companies, each regiment was assigned an adjutant, an interpreter and a quartermaster. The majority of recruits for the Bengal Native Infantry in the leading up to the Mutiny were from the districts of Oude. In addition, soldiers who did not mutiny when the rest of their regiment did so joined units such as The Lucknow Regiment or The Loyal Purbiah Regiment. During the Indian Mutiny all but twelve of the seventy-four regular Bengal Native Infantry regiments either mutinied, were disarmed, or disbanded peacefully and those that mutinied engaged in armed conflict with their officers, other East India Company forces or British Army units. The executions were carried out either by hanging, by firing squad or by blowing from a gun, mutinying regiments officially ceased to exist and their place in the Order of precedence of the Bengal Army was taken by another unit. Brigadier General Nicholson was doubtful of their loyalty and was unwilling to take these regiments to Delhi. As the Moveable Column made its way to Phillour the 52nd Regiment of Foot, when the 35th BNI arrived at the camping ground they found themselves surrounded on three sides by the 52nd Regiment of Foot and covered by the guns of the artillery. Brigadier General Nicholson then informed Colonel Younghusband, the commanding officer, – this order was complied with peacefully. The scene was repeated a short time later when the 33rd BNI arrived at the camping ground, two regiments of BNI were serving in China at the time of the outbreak and remained unaffected. Section 56 of the Government of India Act stated, LVI, there was then a second renumbering of the regiments the same year as a result of transferring four regiments to the Goorkha list. The post-1861 Bengal Native Infantry therefore consisted of 45 regiments, in many cases these units maintain the traditions and retain the battle honours of their antecedent regiments. The Jat Regiment also traces its lineage to the pre-1857 43rd, the regiment retains the battle honours of its antecedent units. The Sikh Regiment traces its lineage back to the post-1861 14th, 15th and 45th regiments of Bengal Native Infantry, the regiment retains the battle honours and some traditions of its antecedent units. 6th Battalion, The Punjab Regiment directly traces its lineage to the post-1861 20th regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, the Punjab Regiment does not retain any battle honours gained before Pakistans independence
4.
Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
5.
Northamptonshire
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Northamptonshire, archaically known as the County of Northampton, is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2011, it had a population of 629,000, the county is administered by Northamptonshire County Council and seven non-metropolitan district councils. Northamptonshire is the southernmost county in the East Midlands region, apart from the county town of Northampton, other large population centres include Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Rushden and Daventry. Northamptonshires county flower is the cowslip, there are two more possible hill-forts at Arbury Hill and Thenford. In the 1st century BC, most of what later became Northamptonshire became part of the territory of the Catuvellauni, a Belgic tribe, the Catuvellauni were in turn conquered by the Romans in 43 AD. The Roman road of Watling Street passed through the county, there were other Roman settlements at Northampton, Kettering and along the Nene Valley near Raunds. A large fort was built at Longthorpe, after the Romans left, the area eventually became part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and Northampton functioned as an administrative centre. The Mercians converted to Christianity in 654 AD with the death of the pagan king Penda, Northamptonshire was conquered again in 940, this time by the Vikings of York, who devastated the area, only for the county to be retaken by the English in 942. Consequently, it is one of the few counties in England to have both Saxon and Danish town-names and settlements, the county was first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, as Hamtunscire, the scire of Hamtun. The North was added to distinguish Northampton from the other important Hamtun further south, Rockingham Castle was built for William the Conqueror and was used as a Royal fortress until Elizabethan times. In 1460, during the Wars of the Roses, the Battle of Northampton took place, the now-ruined Fotheringhay Castle was used to imprison Mary, Queen of Scots, before her execution. George Washington, the first President of the United States of America, was born into the Washington family who had migrated to America from Northamptonshire in 1656. George Washingtons ancestor, Lawrence Washington, was Mayor of Northampton on several occasions and it was George Washingtons great-grandfather, John Washington, who emigrated in 1656 from Northants to Virginia. Before Washingtons ancestors moved to Sulgrave, they lived in Warton, King Charles I was imprisoned at Holdenby House in 1647. In 1823 Northamptonshire was said to a pure and wholesome air because of its dryness. Its livestock were celebrated, Horned cattle, and other animals, are fed to extraordinary sizes, in summer, the county hosted a great number of wealthy families. Country seats and villas are to be seen at every step, Northamptonshire is still referred to as the county of spires and squires because of the numbers of stately homes and ancient churches. In the 18th and 19th centuries, parts of Northamptonshire and the area became industrialised
6.
Gravesend
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Gravesend /ˌɡreɪvzˈɛnd/ is an ancient town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles east-southeast of Charing Cross on the south bank of the Thames Estuary and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Rochester, it is the centre of the Borough of Gravesham. Its geographical situation has given Gravesend strategic importance throughout the maritime, another theory suggests that the name Gravesham may be a corruption of the words grafs-ham – a place at the end of the grove. Frank Carr asserts that the name derives from the Saxon Gerevesend, in the Netherlands, a place called s-Gravenzande is found with its name translating into Sand belonging to the Count. The s is a contraction of the old Dutch genitive article des, the neighbourhood of Gravesend, Brooklyn in the United States is said by some to have been named for s-Gravenzande. The Domesday spelling is its earliest known record, all other spellings – in the later Domesday Monachorum. A variation, Graveshend, can be seen in a record of 1422, where Edmund de Langeford was parson. The municipal title Gravesham was adopted in 1974 as the name for the new borough, stone Age implements have been found in the locality since the 1900s, as has evidence of an Iron Age settlement at nearby Springhead. Extensive Roman remains have been found at nearby Vagniacae, and Gravesend lies immediately to the north of the Roman road connecting London with the Kent coast – now called Watling Street, Domesday Book recorded mills, hythes, and fisheries here. Milton Chantry is Gravesends oldest surviving building and dates from the early 14th century and it was refounded as a chapel in 1320/21 on the original site of a former leper hospital founded in 1189. Gravesend has one of the oldest surviving markets in the country and its earliest charter dates from 1268, with town status being granted to the two parishes of Gravesend and Milton by King Henry III in its Charter of Incorporation of that year. The first Mayor of Gravesend was elected in 1268, although the first Town Hall was not built until 1573, in 1380, during the Hundred Years War, Gravesend suffered being sacked and burned by the Castilian fleet. In 1401, a further Royal Charter was granted, allowing the men of the town to operate boats between London and the town, these became known as the Long Ferry and it became the preferred form of passage, because of the perils of road travel. On Gravesends river front are the remains of a Tudor fort built by command of King Henry VIII in 1543 and it is not known what caused her death. Her funeral and interment took place on 21 March 1617 at the church of St George. The site of her grave was underneath the chancel, though since the previous church was destroyed by fire in 1727 her exact resting place is unknown. Journeys by road to Gravesend were historically quite hazardous, since the main London-Dover road crossed Blackheath, stagecoaches from London to Canterbury, Dover and Faversham used Gravesend as one of their stages as did those coming north from Tonbridge. In 1840 there were 17 coaches picking up and setting down passengers, there were two coaching inns on what is now Old Road East, the Prince of Orange and the Lord Nelson
7.
Grenadier Guards
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The Grenadier Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division and and it is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to The Life Guards. The grouping of buttons on the tunic is a way to distinguish among the regiments of Foot Guards. Grenadier Guards buttons are equally spaced and embossed with the Royal Cypher reversed and interlaced surrounded by the Royal Garter bearing the royal motto Honi soit qui mal y pense and their Buff Belt brass clasps also carry the Royal Cypher. Modern Grenadier Guardsmen wear a cap badge of a grenade fired proper with seventeen flames and this cap badge has to be cleaned twice a day – once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. A tarnished grenade is severely frowned upon and can be punished by disciplinary action within the Regiment, a few years later, a similar regiment known as John Russells Regiment of Guards was formed. In 1665, these two regiments were combined to form the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, consisting of 24 companies of men, since then the Grenadier Guards have served ten Kings and four Queens, including the current Queen Elizabeth II. Throughout the 18th century, the regiment took part in a number of campaigns including the War of Spanish Succession, the War of Austrian Succession, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the regiment gained the name Grenadier in July 1815 following a Royal Proclamation. During the Victorian era, the regiment took part in the Crimean War, participating in the fighting at the Alma river, Inkerman, for their involvement in the Crimean War, four members of the 3rd Battalion received the Victoria Cross. In 1900,75 men from the regiment were used to raise a fourth Guards regiment, at the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the regiment consisted of three battalions. The 2nd Battalion of the regiment was sent to France in August, and they took part in the early stages of the fighting during the period known as Race to the Sea, during which time they were involved significantly at the First Battle of Ypres. In February 1915, a fifth Guards regiment was raised, known as The Welsh Guards, in recognition of the significant contribution Welshmen had made to The Grenadier Guards, the regiment transferred five officers and 634 other ranks to the newly formed unit. Following this the four battalions of the regiment fought in a number of significant battles including Loos, the Somme, Cambrai, Arras. Seven members of the regiment received the Victoria Cross during the war, during the Second World War, the regiment was expanded to six service battalions, with the re-raising of the 4th Battalion, and the establishment of the 5th and 6th Battalions. The 3rd Battalion was in the 1st Guards Brigade attached to the 1st Infantry Division, after this, they returned to the United Kingdom, where they undertook defensive duties in anticipation of a possible German invasion. Between October 1940 and October 1941, the regiment raised the 4th, 5th, the 1st and 2nd Battalions were part of the 5th Guards Armoured Brigade, attached to the Guards Armoured Division, and the 4th Battalion was part of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade Group. The battalions took part in the Italian Campaign at Salerno, Monte Camino, Anzio, Monte Cassino, the 5th Battalion was part of 24th Guards Brigade and served with the 1st Division during the Battle of Anzio. After suffering devastating casualties, the brigade was relieved in March 1944, the 6th Battalion served with the 22nd Guards Brigade, later redesignated 201st Guards Motor Brigade, until late 1944 when the battalion was disbanded due to an acute shortage of Guards replacements
8.
Bengal Army
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The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. In 1895 all three armies were merged into the Indian Army. The Bengal Army originated with the establishment of a European Regiment in 1756, in 1757 the first locally recruited unit of Bengal sepoys was created in the form of the Lal Paltan battalion. It was recruited from Bhumihar, Bihari Rajputs and Pathan soldiers that had served in the Nawabs Army from Bihar, there were actually no soldiers from the modern Bengal region. Drilled and armed along British army lines this force served well at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and 20 more Indian battalions were raised by 1764. In 1824 the Bengal Army underwent reorganisation, with the infantry being grouped into 68 single battalion regiments numbered according to their date of establishment. Nine additional infantry regiments were raised, though several existing units were disbanded between 1826 and 1843. On the eve of the First Afghan War the Bengal Army had achieved a dominant role in the forces of the HEIC, there were 74 battalions of Bengal regular infantry against only 52 from Madras,26 from Bombay and 24 British. A new feature in the Bengal Army was the creation of irregular infantry and cavalry regiments during the 1840s and these were permanently established units but with less formal drill and fewer British officers than the regular Bengal line regiments. The main source of recruitment continued to be high caste Brahmins and Rajputs from Bihar and Oudh, during the 1840s and early 1850s numbers of Nepalese Gurkhas and Sikhs from the Punjab were however accepted in the Bengal Army. Both Gurkhas and Sikhs served in separate units but some of the latter were incorporated into existing Bengal infantry regiments, two of these BNI regiments were serving in China in 1857 and so escaped any involvement in the great rebellion of that year. A total of 64 Bengal Army regular infantry and cavalry regiments rebelled during the Indian Mutiny, from 1858 onwards the actual high-caste Awadhi and Bihari Hindu presence in the Bengal Army was reduced because of their perceived primary role as mutineers in the 1857 rebellion. A largely unspoken rationale was that an army of diverse origins was unlikely to unite in rebellion, in 1895 the three separate Presidency Armies were abolished and the Army of India was divided into four commands, each commanded by a lieutenant-general. These comprised Madras, Punjab, Bengal and Bombay, the Bengal infantry units in existence at the end of the Presidency era continued as the senior regiments (1st Brahmans to 48th Pioneers of the newly unified Indian Army. Prior to 1857, and despite the name, the actual ethnic Bengali presence was minimal to non-existent, the Bengal Army of the East India Company was mainly recruited from high castes living in Bihar and the Awadh, especially Bihari Rajputs and Bhumihars who were referred to as Purbiyas. Governor Generals Bodyguard 1st to 10th Bengal Light Cavalry Regiments, eight of these regular regiments mutinied and two were disbanded during 1857–58. None were carried over into the post-Mutiny army, 1st to 4th Bengal European Light Cavalry Regiments. Recruited hastily in Britain in November 1857 to replace the eight regiments of Bengal Light Cavalry which had mutinied, the mention of European in the name indicated that it consisted of white soldiers rather than Indian sowars
9.
First Anglo-Afghan War
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The First Anglo-Afghan War was fought between British imperial India and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842. Initially, the British successfully intervened in a dispute between emir Dost Mohammad and former emir Shah Shujah, whom they installed upon conquering Kabul in August 1839. The main British Indian and Sikh force occupying Kabul, having endured harsh winters as well, was almost completely annihilated while retreating in January 1842. It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century was a period of diplomatic competition between the British and Russian empires for spheres of influence in Asia known as the Great Game. The Russian Empire was slowly extending its domain into Central Asia, the Company sent an envoy to Kabul to form an alliance with Afghanistans Amir, Dost Mohammad Khan against Russia. Dost Mohammad had recently lost Afghanistans second capital of Peshawar to the Sikh Empire and wanted support to retake it, for this reason, Lord Auckland preferred an alliance with the Punjab over an alliance with Afghanistan, which had nothing equivalent to the Dal Khalsa. The British could have an alliance with the Punjab or Afghanistan, British fears of a Russian invasion of India took one step closer to becoming a reality when negotiations between the Afghans and Russians broke down in 1838. The Qajar dynasty of Persia, with Russian support, attempted the Siege of Herat, Lord Aucklands plan was to drive away the besiegers and replace Dost Mohammad with Shuja Shah Durrani, who had once ruled Afghanistan and was considered pro-British. Shuja Shah had been deposed in 1809 and been living in exile in British India since 1818, collecting a pension from the East India Company, the British denied that they were invading Afghanistan, claiming they were merely supporting its legitimate Shuja government against foreign interference and factious opposition. But this point, Auckland was committed to putting Afghanistan into the British sphere of influence, the Army of the Indus. which included 21,000 British and Indian troops under the command of John Keane, 1st Baron Keane set out from Punjab in December 1838. With them was William Hay Macnaghten, the chief secretary of the Calcutta government. It included a train of 38,000 camp followers and 30,000 camels. By late March 1839 the British forces had crossed the Bolan Pass, reached the Baloch city of Quetta and they advanced through rough terrain, across deserts and 4, 000-metre-high mountain passes, but made good progress and finally set up camps at Kandahar on 25 April 1839. After reaching Kandahar, Keane decided to wait for the crops to ripen before resuming his march, Keane left behind his siege engines in Kandahar, which turned out to be a mistake as he discovered that the walls of the Ghazni fortress were far more powerful than he expected. A deserter, Abdul Rashed Khan, a nephew of Dost Mohammad Khan, informed the British that one of the gates of the fortress was in bad state of repair and might be blasted open with a gunpowder charge. The British took fifty prisoners who were brought before Shuja, where one of them stabbed a minister to death with a hidden knife. On 22 July 1839, in an attack, the British-led forces captured the fortress of Ghazni. The British troops blew up one city gate and marched into the city in a euphoric mood, in taking this fortress, they suffered 200 men killed and wounded, while the Afghans lost nearly 500 men
10.
Ghazni
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Ghaznī or Ghaznai, also historically known as Ghaznīn or Ghazna, is a city in Afghanistan with a population of nearly 150,000 people. It is located in the central-east part of the country, situated on a plateau at 7,280 feet above sea level, the city serves as the capital of Ghazni Province. It is linked by a highway with Kandahar to the southwest, Kabul to the northeast, the foundation stone of Ghazni Airport was laid in April 2012 which now serves Ghazni and other nearby eastern Afghan provinces. Similar to many other Afghanistani cities, Ghazni as ancient city has withstood numerous military invasions, during the pre-Islamic period, the area was inhabited by various tribes who practiced different religions including Buddhism and Hinduism. Arab Muslims introduced Islam to Ghazni in the 7th century, they were followed by the 9th century Islamic conquest of the Saffarids from Zarang in the west, sabuktigin made Ghazni the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire in the 10th century. The city was destroyed by one of the Ghurid rulers, and it fell to a number of regional powers, including the Timurids and the Delhi Sultanate, until it became part of the Hotaki dynasty, which was followed by the Durrani Empire or modern Afghanistan. During the First Anglo-Afghan War in the 19th century, Ghazni was partially destroyed by British-Indian forces, the city is currently being rebuilt by the Government of Afghanistan in remembrance of the Ghaznavid and Timurid era when it served as a major center of Islamic civilisation. The Afghan National Security Forces have established bases and check-points to deal with the Taliban insurgency, Ghazni is a trading and transit hub in central Afghanistan. Agriculture is the dominant land use at 28%, in terms of built-up land area, vacant plots slightly outweigh residential area. Districts 3 and 4 also have large institutional areas, the city of Ghazni has a population of 143,379 with 4 Police districts and total land area of 3,330 Hectares. There are 15,931 total number of dwellings in Ghazni city, Ghazni was founded some time in antiquity as a small market town and is mentioned by Ptolemy. In the 6th century BC, the city was conquered by the Achaemenid king Cyrus II, the city was subsequently incorporated into the empire of Alexander the Great in 329 BC, and called Alexandria in Opiana. Ghazni was a thriving Buddhist centre up until the 7th century, in 683 AD, Arab armies brought Islam to the region, but many refused to accept the new religion. Yaqub Saffari from Zaranj conquered the city in the late 9th century and it later became the dazzling capital of the Ghaznavid Empire, which encompassed much of northern India, Persia and Central Asia. Many iconoclastic campaigns were launched from Ghazni into India, resulting in the destruction of ancient temples, libraries and palaces, the Ghaznavids took Islam to India and returned with fabulous riches taken from Indian princes and temples. Although the city was sacked in 1151 by the Ghorid Alauddin, it became their secondary capital in 1173. Between 1215 and 1221, Ghazni was ruled by the Khwarezmid Empire, in the first decades of the 11th century, Ghazni was the most important centre of Persian literature. This was the result of the policy of the Sultan Mahmud, who assembled a circle of scholars, philosophers
11.
Mahmud of Ghazni
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Yamīn-ud-Dawla Abul-Qāṣim Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktegīn, more commonly known as Mahmud of Ghazni, also known as Mahmūd-i Zābulī, was the most prominent ruler of the Ghaznavid Empire. He conquered the eastern Iranian lands, modern Afghanistan, and the northwestern Indian subcontinent from 997 to his death in 1030. He was the first ruler to carry the title Sultan, signifying the extent of his power, during his rule, he invaded and plundered parts of Hindustan 17 times. Mahmud was born on Thursday,10 Muharram,361 AH/ November 2,971 CE in the town of Ghazna in Medieval Khorasan and his father Sabuktigin was a Turkic Mamluk who founded the Ghaznavid dynasty. His mother was the daughter of a Persian aristocrat from Zabulistan, Sultan Mahmud was born on 2 November 971 CE in Ghazni to first Ghaznavid Sultan Sebüktigin, Yusuf Sebüktigin being his younger brother. He was married to a woman named Kausari Jahan and had twin sons Mohammad and Masud, in 994, Mahmud joined his father Sabuktigin in the capture of Khorasan from the rebel Faiq in aid of the Samanid Emir, Nuh II. Mahmud took over his fathers kingdom in 998 after defeating and capturing Ismail at the Battle of Ghazni and he then set out west from Ghazni to take the Kandahar region followed by Bost, where he turned it into a militarised city. Mahmud initiated the first of numerous invasion of North India, on November 28,1001, his army fought and defeated the army of Raja Jayapala of the Kabul Shahis at the battle of Peshawar. In 1002, Mahmud invaded Sistan and dethroned Khalaf ibn Ahmad, from there he decided to focus on Hindustan to the southeast, particularly the highly fertile lands of the Punjab region. At this point, Jayapala attempted to revenge for an earlier military defeat at the hands of Mahmuds father. His son Anandapala succeeded him and continued the struggle to avenge his fathers suicide and he also vowed to raid and loot the wealthy region of northwestern India every year. In 1001 Mahmud of Ghazni had first invaded modern day Afghanistan and Pakistan then parts of India, Mahmud defeated, captured and later released the Shahi ruler Jayapala, who had moved his capital to Peshawar. Jaya Pala killed himself and was succeeded by his son Ananda Pala, in 1013, during Mahmuds 8th expedition into eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Shahi kingdom was overthrown. In 1014 Mahmud led an expedition to Thanesar, the next year he unsuccessfully attacked Kashmir. In 1018, he attacked Mathura and defeated a coalition of rulers there while also killing a ruler called Chandra Pala, in 1021 Mahmud supported the Kannauj king against Chandela Ganda, who was defeated. That same year Shahi Trilochana Pala was killed at Rahib and his son Bhima Pala succeeded him, Mahmud besieged Gwalior, in 1023, where he given tribute. Mahmud attacked Somnath, in 1025, and its ruler Bhima Deva I fled, the next year, he captured Somnath and marched to Kachch against Bhima Deva. That same year Mahmud also attacked the Jat people of Jud, the last four years of Mahmuds life were spent contending with the influx of Oghuz and Seljuk Turks from Central Asia and the Buyid dynasty
12.
1842 retreat from Kabul
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The 1842 Kabul Retreat took place during the First Anglo-Afghan War. As the army and its numerous dependents and camp-followers began its march, many of the column died of exposure, frostbite or starvation or were killed during the fighting. The Afghans launched numerous attacks against the column as it made progress through the winter snows of the Hindu Kush. The final stand was made just outside a village called Gandamak on 13 January, out of more than 16,000 people from the column commanded by Elphinstone, only one European and a few Indian sepoys reached Jalalabad. Over one hundred British prisoners and civilian hostages were later released, around 2,000 of the Indians, many of whom were maimed by frostbite, survived and returned to Kabul to exist by begging or to be sold into slavery. Some at least returned to India after another British invasion of Kabul several months later, in 2013, a writer for The Economist called the retreat the worst British military disaster until the fall of Singapore exactly a century later. In 1838 the British East India Company feared an increased Russian influence in Afghanistan after Dost Mohammad Barakzai had seized power from former ruler Shuja Shah Durrani in 1834 and he began to assemble his forces in late 1838. The army, under the command of General Sir Willoughby Cotton, with Macnaghten as his chief adviser, in March 1839 they crossed the Bolan Pass and began their march to Kabul. They advanced through rough terrain, crossing deserts and mountain passes at a height of 4,000 metres but made good progress, an Afghan had betrayed his sovereign and the British troops managed to blow one city gate and marched into the city in a euphoric mood. The ample supplies acquired in Ghazni considerably aided the further advance, Dost Mohammad fled and sought refuge in the wilds of the Hindu Kush. Kabul fell without a fight on 6 August 1839, Shuja Shah returned and was proclaimed emir by the British. He established a court in the fortress of Bala Hissar above Kabul, more than a year later, Dost Mohammad surrendered to Macnaghten on 4 November 1840 and was exiled to India. In August 1839, the British refrained from occupying Kabuls citadel and this decision, made on diplomatic grounds, would prove to be a grave military error, as the garrison was sited in a defensively weak position. As political agent and envoy at the court of Shuja Shah, the city was described at the time as clean and pleasant with many spacious wooden houses surrounded by well-kept gardens. The occupiers enjoyed themselves arranging cricket matches, horse races and hunting parties, in the evenings amateur dramatics were staged by East India Company officers and their wives. Performances included Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream and it was considered a special honour to be invited to evening soirées hosted by Lady Florentia Sale, the wife of Brigadier-General Robert Henry Sale. Such social gatherings often saw the serving of salmon and stew with madeira wine, under these conditions, many of the East India Company troops were sent back to their garrisons in India. While the British enjoyed this lifestyle, some Afghans chafed under occupation by a foreign power, Britain had replaced Dost Mohammad, a popular ruler, with Shuja Shah, a weak puppet, who was seen as much more cruel and vindictive to his enemies than his predecessor
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